Stories for 2007

Argentine municipal and provincial governments are helping finance the pickets protesting the construction of a pulp mill in neighboring Uruguay along the coast of a shared border river, was confirmed by officials.

Less growth, more inflation, tougher decisions than so far but nothing catastrophic is the 2008 forecast of Spanish businesses that have strong investments in Latinamerica and are planning to further expand their positions.

Mercosur has become irrelevant and too complicated, and even more when Venezuela is finally incorporated to the block, said former Brazilian Foreign Finance minister Mailson da Nobrega during a bankers and businessmen conference in Geneva to promote investments in Brazil.

Three independent United Nations human rights experts on Friday voiced concern about planned constitutional reforms in Venezuela, saying the proposed changes could curb civil liberties and breach the South American country's international treaty commitments.

Confronted Colombia and Venezuela presidents Alvaro Uribe and Hugo Chavez will have to act politely on Friday if they cross each other during the official inauguration of Ecuador's constitutional assembly seated in Ciudad Alfaro, 500 kilometers from the capital Quito.